Sony NEX-3N: Review

Alright, I managed to get myself a nice new Sony NEX-3N this week, for reviewing purposes, of course, so as usual, let me share my thoughts on the camera – how it feels, how it works, how good (or bad) the images are, and that sort of thing – in a complete and detailed review right here on pixelogist! Alrighty then

The Sony NEX-3N is the latest entry-level model in Sony’s fantastic NEX mirrorless series, and replaces the NEX F3 (which in turn replaced the first “3-series” entry-level model, the C3) as the one to go for if you’re looking for a compact, top performing interchangeable-lens camera, on a rather tight budget

With features like a 16 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, ISO sensitivity up to 16000, fast autofocusing, decent continuous shooting speeds, a Sony E lens mount (which accepts a bunch of other awesome lenses), and quite a lot more, all in a super compact body that’s smaller than the Fujifilm X20, and selling for $500 (including the equally compact Sony 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 retractable power zoom lens), it doesn’t get much better than this. On paper, at least. The purpose of this review then is to find out how it actually works, and what it feels like when shooting in real life with the NEX-3N, and most importantly, how good the final images that it takes are. Stay with me till the end if you want to find out – and don’t simply skip to the conclusion!

Sony NEX-3N

NOTE: I’m not going to be explaining the concept of mirrorless cameras here – I’ve done that countless times, I feel – so check out my Canon EOS M review where you can find one of my many descriptions of what a mirrorless camera system is!

The Sony NEX-3N was released not long ago, and as far as I know, is only available as a kit with the SELF1650 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 power zoom lens. This is not at all a bad thing, as this slim little lens adds a lot to the overall experience of using the NEX-3N body and keeps the entire camera really compact. It is a power zoom lens, and not a manual (mechanical) zoom that you’d expect with a system camera like this, and one of the benefits of such a lens is that it actually retracts into itself when not in use, which is what makes it as slim as it is. If you want to know more about this lens, check out my review on it – and in case you’re wondering if you can use other E-mount lenses that you own with this body, the NEX-3N will of course be fully compatible with all these lenses

I have a full spec sheet on the lens in its own review, but there isn’t much to write in terms of specs anyway. It’s a 16-50mm f3.6-5.6 lens, which, on this APS-C sensor, gives a field of view that is equivalent to 24-74mm on a 35mm camera, and has an MFD of 25cm. It weights 116g. That’s it

First Thoughts

When you open the box and take this camera out – or try it out in the store before buying – you’re going to love how small it is. It’s really compact. I don’t remember exactly how small the EOS M was, but this feels even smaller; and comparing the EOS M and the NEX-3N side by side on camerasize.com, I can confirm that the 3N is as small, and smaller in some ways, as the EOS M. That’s fantastic. It’s also pretty light. I guess that makes it feel a bit less-than-premium – the build quality is good, if a bit plasticky – but then again, it’s not a premium camera, is it? It’s an entry-level product, and I think the build quality and overall feel is better than average. And I love the size

One of the main reasons the NEX-3N kit is so compact and is smaller than most other mirrorless systems out there is its super slim kit lens, a retractable power zoom lens that is just around 3cm thick when turned off; it is significantly smaller than other kit lenses such as the Canon EF-M 18-55. Put next to my Fuji X20, the NEX-3N body is smaller, and even with the lens attached, with barrel protruding, it’s just about as thick (or thin) as the X20

The zoom range of 16-55mm is very interesting – a pretty unique zoom range for a entry-level kit lens – and while it misses 5mm at the telephoto end compared to most kit lenses you would’ve come across, what you will really notice is the 2mm you gain at the wide end. Very nice indeed, and great for you landscape fellows out there. It feels pretty good in the hand – I’d say it feels as good as the EF-M 18-55mm, the only thing I loved about the EOS M system – and works as well (or better) than a general purpose kit lens should work. It focuses internally, which means nothing moves as you focus, and the focus motor is deadly quiet. Excellent. The barrel extends as you zoom, of course – only to be expected for a lens of this price range – and overall, I’m very happy with this Sony 16-50mm f3.5-5.6! I’ve done a full review on this lens, so check that out if you want more information on it

One of the cool new features of this system is its power zoom lens, and the zooming mechanism on the NEX-3N is very interesting, due to the number of ways (three!) that you can control zoom on the lens. First of all, you can use the ring on the lens barrel, which is placed where you’d find a zoom ring on any kit lens. It’s not a mechanical zoom ring but is an electronic one that controls a motor that zooms the lens for you. I’ve heard people complain that using this ring tends to make the zooming action a bit jumpy, and not really smooth, and it is – if you try to use it like a manual zoom ring. It’s not. So don’t try to use it like one. Get used to it – get a feel for it – and it works just fine. I was able to make 1mm corrections using this ring with no problem at all. If you still don’t like it, you can try option #2, a sort of slider switch under the lens barrel, which zooms in a slower, smoother fashion. More suitable for video work? Depends on what you want, I guess, but yeah…this option works great too. If you don’t like THIS one either, there’s option #3, the most interesting one of all: a traditional point-n-shoot style rocker switch around the shutter button. Surely you’re used to that?! What this also means is that you can use this camera very easily using just the one hand. Nice! Naturally, this rocker works only with the powered zoom lenses in the Sony E series of lenses, which as far as I know only includes this 16-50mm, although there should be more on the way. But anyway, if you can’t find a method of zooming the NEX-3N that doesn’t make you happy, it’s not the camera’s fault!

UPDATE: There’s also a Sony 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 powered zoom lens for the NEX E-mount – although, being released along with the NEX-VG900 full-frame video camera, this rather massive lens seems to be designed with the videographer in mind. However, it’s an E-mount lens, so it’ll work on all NEX cameras, and as it’s a powered zoom lens, the NEX-3N’s zoom rocker will be able to control it – but I wouldn’t dare try shooting one-handed with this humongous thing!

Oh, and if you switch to manual focus, the main zoom ring becomes a focus ring, which works beautifully. Turn on Sony’s famous Focus Peaking feature and manual focusing has never been better!

Ok, so that was quite a lot about the very basics of the camera, right? Sorry about that. To continue with my first thoughts: turning on the camera, the power-on time is excellent. Snap off the lens cap, flick the power switch and you’re ready to shoot in two seconds or less. Less importantly, powering off takes just under two seconds too. Snappy

Taking my first shot with it, in good lighting conditions, the AF system locked focus almost instantly. Compared with other mirrorless systems I’ve used, it’s on par with most of them, and faster than quite a few of them. Very impressive – especially when you consider how some people were commenting with disappointment on this camera’s lack of phase detect AF. In dimmer lighting conditions, the AF speed remained excellent, and never took more than a second to lock focus. More on this in the Performance section but yeah – it’s great to start off a camera test this way

What next? Oh yes. The shutter. The shutter is loud! At first I thought it was some sort of artificial shutter sound that could be turned off the Setup menu, but it turns out that’s the NEX-3N’s actual shutter mechanism. It makes a pretty loud sort of ‘clunk’ or ‘clack’ as the shutter releases. Not a big deal for some, but I’m going to say you street shooters out there wouldn’t really want this camera. It’s a loud operator

The 460k-dot LCD is alright. The 3N’s predecessor, the F3, had a higher resolution 920k-dot screen, so it’s disappointing to see a downgrade on what’s supposed to be an upgrade, but it works alright. It gave me a bit of trouble in bright sunlight, though. I usually have no problem with sunlight and LCDs, but here I often had to shade the screen with my hand, and had to take many a shot where I was guessing the composition, and had to review ‘em in the shade afterwards. I guess I’ve not had this sort of trouble before because I’ve been testing rather high-end cameras lately, and this screen is nothing like the superb LCD found on the RX100, for instance; but when you consider this camera is a mirrorless system camera that costs less than many of today’s premium compact cameras, you’d stop complaining. The LCD is perfectly alright

I don’t usually consider flip/articulated screens a must-have on my cameras, but whenever using one, I always ‘re-realize’ how useful they can be. However, the LCD on the 3N is not fully articulated, nor is it a true tilt LCD. It simply flips upwards 180°. This allows you to take low-angle shots and self-portraits very easily, but for shooting above the head – nope. It’s better than a fixed screen, I guess, but if you’ve put in the hinges for a tilt screen, surely doing the job properly and making it a true tilt screen couldn’t have been that hard?

First impressions on image quality, after reviewing them on the low-res LCD: very good. I’m obviously going to go into much more detail later on (hopefully without boring you!) but seeing the sort of pictures that this camera takes right in the beginning, it gives a good feeling!

Ok, I’m almost done. Just a few more quick comments, one of which is on the flash – which I really like. I haven’t used it as yet, but the fact that this pop-up flash has a flexible head means there’s the chance for some nice bounce flash effects. Sweet

Another comment I have is on the macro capabilities of the lens. I love shooting close-up – I love getting the extra detail from the subject, while also blurring the background completely – so a camera’s close-up capabilities are very important to me. So if you’re wondering how close the 16-50mm lens can get, it has an MFD of 25cm throughout the zoom range; which means that, naturally, your best macro chances are at the 50mm end of the lens. Shooting at 50mm, around 25cm from the subject, I got some great close-ups. Look at the sample images for more

One final comment, this time a little complaint: as this camera has a retracting lens mechanism and all that, you don’t want to turn it on every time you simply want to view pictures. All compact cameras allow you to view images simply by pressing the Playback button, which turns on the camera in Playback mode without extending the lens, right? Not on the NEX-3N. You need to turn the entire thing on, then switch to Playback mode, and view your shots. The fact that the lens cap can be kept on as you turn on the camera saves this from being outrageously annoying, but I hope a firmware update can fix this

And that’s it. I think apart from the last comment, I had no complaints. That’s fantastic, isn’t it? Oh, and unlike the RX100, the NEX-3N comes with a full printed manual, in no less than three separate languages. Excellent!

Controls & Handling

The NEX-3N looks like most of the NEX series, and I love that. It’s smaller than the rest, though, so people might be concerned about the grip, and of course, that’s a personal thing. I have large hands, and I find the NEX-3N perfectly comfortable to grip – but then again, I rarely have a problem gripping any sort of camera, so yeah, it’s a personal thing, this. Go try it out if you’re concerned – I think it’s fine

I’ll describe the available controls first, and then talk about what they do and how they work:

On top, there’s just a power switch, the shutter button (with the zoom rocker around it), and a Playback button. I guess the flash release button and the dedicated Movie record button are also on top, although one could argue that they’re on the back too

Sony NEX-3N Top Panel

The back panel has the rest of the controls, which consist simply of two soft keys and a four-way controller/control wheel. That’s it. The four-way directional buttons control Display, ISO, Drive/Self Timer and Exposure Compensation – and there’s a Select button the middle. Read on for more on the soft keys

Sony NEX-3N Back Panel

As this is an interchangeable-lens camera, the front has the lens release button – but that’s all on the front

Sony NEX-3N Front

The controls are very similar, and in parts identical, to the rest of the NEX series. Let me break it down for you before I describe them, for those of you unfamiliar with how Sony does things on the NEX cameras:

Alright, so in addition to the usual four-way directional controller, the NEX-3N has two ‘soft keys’. The soft keys are basically Select button that select different things depending on the mode or state of the camera – and what each button selects in the camera’s current state is displayed right next to it, on the LCD. For example, in any of the shooting modes, Soft Key A is the Menu button, but once you’re in the Menu, the same Soft Key A becomes the Back button. Easy, right? Yeah. Soft Key B is not used in the Menu, but the in playback mode it works as the Delete key. When shooting, the Soft Key B is customizable – you can program it to access ISO, white balance presets, metering modes, etc.) but if you use the flexible-area AF mode, Soft Key B becomes your AF Area Select button, and cannot be changed. This is good, as I regularly change my AF point, but this means there’s one less user-defined control

The right key on the four-way controller is customizable too, but as there’s no other easy way to adjust ISO, I recommend leaving it as it is. This means there’s no real customizable button on the NEX-3N if you use this flexible-area AF mode, and that’s disappointing. There’s so much room on the back – next to the Soft Key B, for example – to put in a Q menu or Fn button, which would’ve made this decent interface so much better. The Up key on the four-way controller, which sets Display, is another one wasted, although many camera makers do this, and I don’t understand why. How often do you change the Display settings on your camera? I just set it once and leave it – there’s absolutely NO need for a dedicated button to do this for me. Such a waste!

Anyway, moving on. There’s no mode dial on the camera, similar to most other NEX cameras, as well as the EOS M. To select a mode (P, A, S, M etc.) you press the center button of the four-way controller, and turn the control wheel to select your mode. It’s very easy, and I have no complaints here, especially since I rarely change exposure modes, but I always favor a physical mode dial nonetheless. On occasion, I found myself searching the top panel when trying to change modes. One can get quickly used to that, though

One thing that I really do miss, however, is an AE lock button. The menu gives you an option to lock exposure when you half-press and hold the shutter button; but as this also locks focus, it can be useful, but not always. There are often occasions when I want to meter HERE and focus THERE. Not possible on the 3N. Of course, you can customize Soft Key B (or the right directional key) to do just this, but like I already said, these two keys are used for other settings (for me, at least) already. So unfortunately, I’d probably turn this ‘focus and lock exposure’ setting off and give up on AEL altogether if I were using this camera

The playback button – I’m not a fan of it’s position. It just doesn’t feel natural to me. Not a real complaint, but yeah. I don’t like it

The menu system is the same as the one used on most (or all) other NEX cameras. If you’ve never used an NEX before, the menu is broken down into different categories, so after a press of the Menu soft key, you get a sub-menu with this selection of tiles: Shooting Mode (another way to change your exposure mode), Camera (drive mode, AF mode, etc.), Image Size (you guessed it), Brightness/Color (ISO, WB, EV, metering, picture effects/styles etc.), Playback (Delete, slideshow, etc.) and Setup. I like this system – it works great on most occasions – and prefer it to the menu found on Sony’s RX100, which bunched up all these into one tabbed menu system, and wasn’t that easy to get around. However, in some instances, where I needed to repeatedly change the same setting after each shot (granted, this mainly happens when test shooting!) I found it a bit cumbersome, involving a process that included around 5 button presses and a turn of the control wheel in between each shot!

UPDATE: After using the camera bit more, I find the menu system (mainly due to the lack of Fn/Q menu type button, really) to be very frustrating indeed. Changing WB presets one after the other require a minimum of 3 button presses, the adjustment via control wheel, and a press of the center Select button. If you change metering mode, then want to change WB, it’d probably add another couple of button presses to that process. And settings like metering mode, flash mode, flash compensation, and such are all equally difficult to access; and since the customizable keys are not really customizable if you shoot with the flexible area AF mode, this really becomes a problem

One last comment on the design of the camera is the memory card slot, which is located on the side of the camera, under the charger/USB/HDMI port cover. The position of this is great, but the lid is not. It doesn’t have a lock, but instead has a little slit, which you need to get under and pry the cover open, with a fingernail. A lock would’ve been much better

And that’s it. I know I went into too much detail but hopefully there are some of you who wanted to read all that!

Performance

Summing it up in one word (or sentence, actually) before I begin, I’d say performance was well above what I expected from this, an entry-level mirrorless camera. Really impressive no matter what area of performance you’re talking about, and everything was always brisk and snappy – never sluggish

Power-on speed is very quick – less than two seconds on my estimation. Very quick indeed. The camera shuts down in less than two seconds too – so if you mistakenly turn off the camera and find you need to take another shot (it happens more often than you might think), you can power off, power back on, and be ready to shoot, all in less than four seconds

Autofocusing, like I said in the beginning, is excellent. Contrast detect AF it might be, but it performs far better than the fancy Hybrid AF system on the EOS M, and does a great job in all sorts of lighting conditions. In well-lit conditions, it’s near instant. In low light, it never takes a second or more. And rarely fails to lock focus. Top class

Shot-to-shot speed is superb, JPEG or RAW. It shoots and – if you turn off the auto image review – is ready to go pretty much immediately afterwards

Burst shooting isn’t super fast, with a max speed of 4fps, but it buffers/writes very fast, so you can continue shooting for 10 seconds or more and the speed rarely drops below this 4fps. Unless you’re shooting sports or some serious action stuff, this is perfectly adequate

Yeah, the Bionz engine is pretty damn good, and keeps the camera moving along very nicely. Menu browsing and all that is fast too, and while it can feel a bit slow when you’re rapidly trying to change settings repeatedly, it’s probably the menu system itself that’s slowing you down, not the speed of the camera itself

Like I said, it’s far better than what I expected, and I’d say it’s on par with cameras costing much more than the NEX-3N does. It never felt like it was slowing me down – the only thing that does that is the menu system/controls – and always feels snappy, and that’s a great feeling to have when you’re shooting

Features

Power Zoom Lens: One of the more interesting features found on this kit is the power zoom lens, and the methods of adjusting your focal length (zoom). It’s not the first power zoom lens to appear on a mirrorless camera, of course – but it’s one of the nicest to use, I have to say, and I’m a fan of it. The zoom ring and the slider switch under the lens barrel give you a very good feel and I found both these methods very comfortable to use, while the point-n-shoot type rocker switch around the shutter button is a fantastic little addition, making one-handed shooting extremely comfortable. It also makes the transition easy for those upgrading to a mirrorless system from a basic compact camera. I’m not a videographer so I can’t comment on how this would work for video but it works fine for photography. If you’re into video, go get a video camera!

Clear Image Zoom: Found on many Sony cameras these days, Clear Image Zoom is basically digital zoom i.e. it crops the image to get a smaller field of view and gives you the impression that you’ve zoomed in more. However, regular digital zoom will cost you resolution; Sony claims that Clear Image Zoom magically manages to digitally magnify the image by up to 2x without losing resolution. Alright, it’s not magic but probably some form of processing, but yeah…that’s what they claim it does. With 16.1MP to play with, if you really want to get a bit more reach, use this – it works well enough – but I usually keep this sort of thing turned off

50mm without digital zoom

50mm with 2x Clear Image Zoom

Dynamic Range Optimization/Auto HDR: The dynamic range of this camera’s sensor is pretty good, and with dynamic range optimization turned on, it’s even better. Have a look at the sample pictures below to get an idea of how well it works. If you want to do a quick HDR – the AE bracketing options are not great on the NEX-3N – the Auto HDR mode is your best bet. I’ve included a sample of how this works too. Try out both DR Optimization and Auto HDR and see what you like best – shots taken with each mode look different – and use that for your high dynamic range shots. I’d recommend keeping DR Optimization on regardless of what you shoot, though. And as you can see from the sample shots below, using DR Optimization and a manual mode like Aperture Priority (or the Auto HDR mode) gives far better results than the Superior Auto mode, which also did a multi-shot HDR but didn’t do it that well

DR Optimization OFF

DR Optimization ON

Auto HDR

Superior Auto Mode

Sweep Panorama: This has got its own dedicated mode on the virtual mode dial, and it does its job as well as any other camera does, in its class or otherwise. Smoothly stitched panoramas are very easy to come by with this camera. Nothing more to say here

Not my best effort, but the camera did its job!

Flash: Ok, so it’s a regular little pop-up flash, but like on the RX100, the 3N’s flash is a flexible little thing that can be tilted back with your finger and held there while you shoot, which gives a beautiful, soft and even light to your photograph. It’s nothing like the harsh look you get with even the best pop-up flash fired directly. Fantastic. All cameras should have this sort of pop-up!

Custom WB, No Flash

Auto WB, Direct Flash

Auto WB, Bounced Flash

Manual Focus/Focus Peaking: Using the zoom ring, which becomes a focus ring in MF mode, to focus manually is an absolute pleasure. It’s smooth, it’s just sensitive enough, and add to that the awesome Focus Peaking MF assistance feature and it’s manual focusing heaven! If you only want to fine-tune the AF, there’s no full-time manual control on this, but there’s a nice DMF mode that allows you just that: autofocus, then fine-tine using the lens ring. Perfect

Intelligent/Superior Auto Modes: These automatic modes are obviously not for the experienced photographer, but for the beginners who would probably buy this camera, these could be fairly useful, and they work well enough – as well as any automatic mode on new cameras these days. I can’t quite differentiate between the Intelligent and Superior Auto modes (why couldn’t they just make them both one mode?!) but apparently the Superior mode is superior in terms of image quality and in ability to handle harder-to-capture scenes. They both do a pretty good job of looking at a scene, judging if it’s a landscape/portrait/backlit/night etc. type of shot and shooting a well-exposed image of it. The Superior Auto mode sometimes shoots a composite of 3 images too, depending on the scene (backlit scenes, for instance) but in my experience, this doesn’t work out that well all the time, as you saw in the above examples of dynamic range optimization – where the Auto HDR shots that the Superior Auto mode took didn’t look nearly as good as the shots taken in manual modes with DR Optimization

More interestingly, these two modes give you a bit of creative control via the Photo Creativity menu, accessed by pressing the Down key on the four-way. This menu gives you control over a few properties of the image, specifically Background Defocus (see below), Brightness, Color (temperature), and Vividness. It also lets you add a Picture Effect (see below again!). Not the exact sort of creative control most photographers would want, but then again, if you want more creative control than this, don’t shoot auto! If you shoot auto, I think you’d be happy with these options

Background Defocus: One of the features of the Photo Creativity menu in the Auto modes, from what I can tell, Background Defocus isn’t a composite shooting mode like Fuji’s Pro Focus mode, which actually blurs the background more than a manual mode would. Instead, it simply tells the camera to shoot the automatic exposure (remember, it’s only available in the Auto modes) with a very wide aperture, which results in a blurry background, but not more so than if you shoot at f3.5 in Aperture Priority mode. I guess this is for absolute beginners who don’t know how aperture affects depth of field. I compared two identical shots, one taken in Aperture Priority at f3.5, and one taken in Auto with Background Defocus set to maximum, and didn’t notice a difference. Yeah, it’s rather useless; I was rather excited by this feature, which is why I talked about it separately here, but it doesn’t deserve the attention. I didn’t bother adding examples here

Picture Effects: The usual filters that people love these days – toy camera, pop color, miniature, the works – are found here. It can be accessed under Photo Creativity in Auto modes, but it’s also available in the menu and can be applied to any shooting mode you’re using

Miniature

Toy Camera

Retro

Auto Object Framing: This one’s a complete gimmick, I’m afraid. What it claims to do is to detect a scene (it works in the Auto modes only, of course), capture it, then crop it to form a more ‘professional’ composition i.e. it tries to do your job. That’s a terrible concept, to begin with, but I thought it might at least it help some beginners learn a few things about composition – if it worked. But it doesn’t. I took a couple of portraits, in landscape orientation, and it did crop to portrait orientation, but it tried to do its ‘professional’ thing with what I assume was an attempt at a Rule of Thirds framing, resulting in my subject’s ear being half cut off. No, it’s just a gimmick

Compatibility with all Sony E lenses: Not one of the coolest features, I know, but like many uncool-sounding things, it’s very important. There’s no use going for a camera system if there are only one or two lenses that are available for it. With the NEX-3N, you’re open to all Sony’s E-mount lenses, and there are quite a few of these to choose from! Add on the optional adapter and you can use Sony’s Alpha DSLR glass too! Nice! Sure, lenses are expensive, and if you’re spending $1000 or more on a lens, you’d probably want a better body, but like they always say, spend more on the glass – lenses are more important than the body. A NEX-3N with a Zeiss lens would give you better results than a cheap kit lens and the NEX 6 or NEX 7

Yeah, there are quite a few features on the NEX-3N. There are probably a lot more – check out Sony’s page if you want a complete list – but these are what caught my eye, and these are what I ended up using during the few days of my testing. Some of them (most of them, really) were helpful and were pleasant to use, while a few were absolutely pointless; but yeah, a solid feature list

Sony SELP1650 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 Power Zoom lens

A quick word on the lens for those of you who want more about it without reading my full review: to put it simply, I really liked this super-slim zoom. Build quality is very nice. I think I mentioned earlier that it feels as well built as the Canon EF-M kit zoom, and I stand by that. Most of Sony’s E-mount lenses are built well and this is too. At 116g, it’s very light, and with the body, adds up to a pretty small weight of just 385g. Light but not light enough to feel cheap. It just feels good in the hand

Sony SELP1650

Having such a compact body in the NEX-3N, it would be a shame to ruin it with a large lens, which is what happens to most really compact mirrorless systems, but here the SELP1650 changes things. Retracting down to just around 3cm in thickness, it makes the entire system as compact as the Fujifilm X20! That’s quite incredible

Sony NEX-3N Kit

Focusing is internal, which means nothing moves while focusing. The focusing motor is very quiet too. Fantastic. Unfortunately, the loud clack created by the shutter mechanism ruins the quiet operation of the system, but the lens does its job very quietly. The lens protrudes a further couple of centimeters when powered on, and extends a centimeter or so while zooming, nothing more. Very acceptable

It has an MFD of 25cm throughout the range, which makes for some decent macro shots at the 50mm end of the lens, and that’s about it. For image quality, of course – read the next part!

Sony NEX-3N: Image Quality

Alright, crunch time. It’s not going to matter how compact it is, how fast it focuses, or how awesome the battery life is (it’s pretty awesome), if the images don’t keep up with the competition. However, Sony has never had issues with image quality recently, and definitely not with the NEX system, and the 3N is not about to become the first. I already hinted at very good image quality earlier on, and now I elaborate on that: the image quality is very, very good indeed! The SELP1650, the EXMOR HD CMOS sensor, and the Bionz engine, all combine to produce some lovely images, really

The thing I really liked about the pictures that the NEX-3N takes is the natural quality about them. They’re not over the top, nor are they flat and underwhelming, but they looks really good while remaining natural. That’s a sign of a very good camera. The best of the best produce images that are colorful, contrasty, bright and punchy, full of life, while also remaining natural – faithful to the original subject. And while I’m not going to compare images from the 3N to images from a Leica or something ridiculous like that, I’m going to say the images this NEX produced had this sort of quality about them – colorful, powerful, bright, but natural and faithful too – and looked excellent overall. This sort of image quality will be perfect not only for the market that this camera aims at, but for many of you who consider yourself professionals. It takes really good images. The images are sharp too – and while I think the EF-M kit lens produced images a tad sharper than the ones I took with this Sony 16-50mm, I’m not complaining at all. Just nitpicking. It’s a pretty damn sharp lens. Take a look at the crops, coming up in a bit

Noise control is truly fantastic. I would never hesitate shooting at ISO 3200 with the NEX-3N, simply because images taken at ISO 3200 are clean! In fact, I might even go up to 6400, although here noise is pretty present – but it’s still not too bad. 12800 and 16000 are only for emergencies, but images up to 3200 have no problems with noise whatsoever. And it’s not overdone NR either – look at the sample crops again – you’ll realize that the images still retain a good amount of detail

Auto White Balance does a great job 99% of the time, indoors and outdoors, with artificial light and ambient light. But as with all but the very best of cameras I’ve tested, the auto WB on the NEX-3N struggled in my living room at night. I have no idea what it is about this living room that makes it so difficult for cameras – the combination of curtain color, wall color, and the temperature of the electric lamps, probably – but things often tend to look bad with a camera set to auto WB, and that was the case with the 3N. It produced images with a fairly strong green cast over things, images that were pretty unusable unless they were taken in RAW, to be fixed in Photoshop later – but a quick custom WB setting was all that was necessary to capture this living room perfectly accurately

Or the flash could’ve been used! Ah, the tilting flash! Fantastic, really. It worked just as well as I had hoped it would, allowing for some beautiful, soft lighting indoors, and is just leaps and bounds ahead of any direct pop-up flash. It makes up for the lack of a hot-shoe for an external flash, it really does. I can’t describe it better – have a look at the images I posted in the Features section above, and in the sample pictures below, and see for yourself. The flash is decent when fired directly, but is nothing special – it looks like any other direct pop-up flash – but when bounced, it just looks wonderful!

Lens errors are not very noticeable in JPEGs. In RAW, there’s a very noticeable bit of distortion at the wide end, but as Lightroom has already profiled this lens, it just takes a click to fix. Chromatic aberrations are not noticeable in either JPEG or RAW. It’s not that the lens is perfect – I just don’t pixel-peel purely to discover lens errors. I simply call it as I see it in regular size, and I can’t say I noticed anything glaring here! Something I did notice was a bit of vignetting, even in jpegs, when shooting wide open throughout the zoom range. More on this in the full review on the lens, though – I must leave something to write in that post!

UPDATE: I’m noticing more vignetting now that I’m aware of it, and I must say in some cases it’s rather strong. The only real fault of this lens, if you ask me

What else? Well, another comment on the image quality of the lens: in addition to producing sharp images, the bokeh (or the quality of the out-of-focus blur) in the images taken by this camera at wide apertures I found to be nice and smooth. On cheaper kit zoom lenses, bokeh can be harsh, or simply ordinary. I think the bokeh that this lens produces is pretty smooth and very pleasant

Metering is something I often forget to comment about, which is stupid considering how important it is and how directly responsible a metering system is to the image quality of a camera (unless you’re a complete manual shooter!) and yeah – the multi-segment metering system worked most of the time for me. On a few occasions, shooting backlit subjects, I had to switch to spot metering mode, and that worked fine too. It’s a good metering system

Image Quality: Sharpness, Detail, Noise

NOTE: All night shots/high ISO shots were taken with Long Exposure NR ON and High ISO NR set to Normal. All are approximately 100% crops, and apart from the sharpness tests, each shot is a crop is taken from the center of the frame, and was shot at around f5.6

16mm/Wide Open/Center

16mm/Wide Open/Corner

16mm/Stopped Down/Center

16mm/Stopped Down/Corner

50mm/Wide Open/Center

50mm/Wide Open/Corner

50mm/Stopped Down/Center

50mm/Stopped Down/Corner

Detail

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 12800

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 12800

ISO 16000

Image Quality: RAW vs. JPEG

16mm/Wide Open/Center

16mm/Wide Open/Corner

16mm/Stopped Down/Center

16mm/Stopped Down/Corner

50mm/Wide Open/Center

50mm/Wide Open/Corner

50mm/Stopped Down/Center

50mm/Stopped Down/Corner

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 12800

All of the above are approximate 100% crops, and apart from the sharpness tests, all shots are crops from the center of the frame, and were shot at around f5.6. All comparisons are paired with JPEG first & RAW second

And yeah, that’s about it, really. The best parts of the lens and body combine to take images that are sharp, colorful, and natural, with pretty bokeh too – while remaining noise-free up to rather high ISO sensitivities. The lens is not the sharpest of its kind I’ve used – for example, the Canon’s EF-M kit zoom was just a bit sharper, if I remember right – but it’s as good as what you’d expect from a lens in this price category. In fact, apart from the EF-M 18-55mm (which I found to be exceptional, really), in this price range it’d be very hard to find a sharper lens. And in reality, without comparisons or pixel-peeping, it’s perfectly sharp enough. The overall image quality is excellent. Add the superb little flash into the mix and you should really be happy with the quality of photographs this little camera and lens takes!

Sony NEX-3N Product Gallery

Sony NEX-3N Sample Image Gallery

ISO 200 f5.6 1/2000 sec 16mm

ISO 200 f3.5 1/40 sec 16mm

ISO 200 f5.6 1/10 sec 34mm

ISO 640 f5.6 1/80 50mm

ISO 200 f8.0 1/1000 sec 16mm

ISO 200 f5.6 1/1600 sec 16mm

ISO 200 f4.5 1/800 sec 23mm

ISO 200 f5.6 1/1600 sec 50mm

ISO 200 f5.6 1/1250 50mm

ISO 200 f4.5 1/2000 sec 24mm

ISO 200 f6.3 1/2500 sec 50mm

ISO 200 f8.0 1/4000 sec 50mm

ISO 800 f6.3 1/1250 sec 40mm (B/W mode)

ISO 200 f4.0 1/1600 sec 21mm (B/W mode)

ISO 200 f7.1 1/1000 sec 16mm (B/W mode)

ISO 200 f8.0 1/800 sec 31mm (B/W mode)

ISO 200 f4.0 1/2500 sec 20mm (B/W Mode)

ISO 400 f4.5 1/400 sec 23mm

ISO 400 f4.5 1/200 sec 29mm (Vivid)

ISO 200 f3.5 1/3200 sec 16mm (Vivid)

ISO 3200 f3.5 1/20 sec 16mm

ISO 3200 f3.5 1/25 sec 16mm

ISO 6400 f5.0 1/20 sec 30mm

ISO 6400 f3.5 1/25 sec 16mm

ISO 3200 f3.5 1/13 sec (Custom WB)

ISO 3200 f3.5 1/15 sec (no flash)

ISO 800 f3.5 1/60 sec (with flash)

ISO 800 f3.5 1/60 sec (with flash)

ISO 800 f4.0 1/25 sec 22mm

ISO 200 f10 4.0 sec 16mm (Tripod)

ISO 3200 f3.5 1/15 sec 16mm

What I liked/didn’t like

Positives:

Superb image quality – one of the best in its class

Lens produces nice, sharp images with very pleasant bokeh

Images are noise-free up to ISO 3200

Very fast autofocus system – again, one of the best in its class, I’d say

Awesome little pop-up flash that tilts for great bounce flash effect

Extremely small size and weight

Very well designed power zoom lens with great options for zoom control

Excellent dynamic range optimization mode

Very good sweep panorama

Fast power-on speed

Great manual focus mode along with superb Focus Peaking

Excellent battery life (went through my entire 3 days of tests on a single charge)

At $500 for the kit, this is top value for money

Negatives:

Lack of Fn or Q menu button

Frustrating menu system (made so by lack of Fn or Q menu button)

Lack of customizable buttons – if you use the camera like I do, the two customizable buttons cannot really be customized

No AE lock – big negative for me

Loud shutter – again, a big negative for the street shooter in me

No hot-shoe – not a problem for me, I love the pop-up flash

Rather strong vignetting at wide apertures (although this is a fault of the lens, not the body)

Conclusion

And yeah, that’s the Sony NEX-3N reviewed for you. Looking immediately above at the pros and cons, you’d notice there are more positives than negatives. That’s always a good thing. A few of the negatives are significant, though. Significant enough to change my mind if I was trying to decide between two cameras for a purpose

In fact, I would consider adding this to my collection, as it’d make a great little camera for discreet street shooting; however, a few of these issues – namely the loud shutter, the lack of Fn/Q buttons, and the lack of an AEL – are responsible for me deciding against keeping this

However, for the beginner, these issues might not be that much of an issue. The menu system and lack of function buttons might cause even the newest newbie a bit of a problem, but the loud shutter and lack of an AEL shouldn’t really be an issue. And if a beginner is going for an entry-level camera and can’t spend more than $500, I’d definitely recommend a mirrorless system camera like this rather than a high-end compact, which would cost as much or more. The high image quality, as well as the shallower depth of field, that the large APS-C sensor cameras are capable of, can really allow new photographers to express themselves better, while the handling of this sort of camera also helps them develop from point-and-shoot users to system camera users – and the design of the NEX-3N in particular makes this transition very easy

If not for these few issues, I’d recommend the NEX-3N as a budget choice for any grade of photographer. The images it produces are really good – sharp, natural, colorful, noise-free, and all that – the lens is well-built and really nice to use, the flash is superb, and I generally enjoyed using it; but having said issues, I find myself only recommending it to beginners who are looking for a cheap but really good camera to kick off a photography hobby or career. For those experienced photographers out there, if you’re looking for a cheap backup camera and you know you can handle the little issues outlined here, I can recommend it to you as well! But know these little problems before buying

Alright, that’s it then. It’s been a long one, hasn’t it? I hope it was helpful! If you have anything to say on this camera or on this review, please leave a comment – I always love hearing from you. Questions, thoughts, ideas, criticisms…anything, really! Oh, and if you’re buying this camera, as always, please use my links and help pixelogist stay online! Until next time

Did you know that I’m currently working on this site full-time? Please consider making a small donation if you can – thank you!

You can follow pixelogist.me by subscribing via RSS or email, and get to know as soon as new posts go online

Discussion

54 Responses to “Sony NEX-3N: Review”

excellent review! the sample crops are great. i don’t usually look at that sort of thing, but it’s nice to know what this camera can do, really. if you had to recommend between this, the F3 and the EOS M, which would you recommend?

Thanks, Allan I’d put both the NEX F3 and 3N way above the EOS M. The EF-M lens was nice, but the EOS M body was a disaster. So comparing the F3 vs. the 3N, I haven’t used the F3 so I can’t make a very good recommendation, but I’ve used the 3N, which I really liked as you can see – and I usually recommend buying newer gear as they’re always better in terns of image quality (noise control, resolution, etc) – so I’d definitely recommend the NEX 3N!

Thanks for sharing all this information. It’s one of the best reviews I’ve read. I’m looking forward to more reviews from you – but this NEX is particularly interesting as I think it is very suitable for me. I have a bit of a tight budget, and $500 seems just right. I don’t NEED a really small camera, but small is nice. And I want the best image quality and performance I can get for the money, as you would have guessed. Maybe this is the wrong place to ask, but would you recommend I get this, or do you know of any other similar cameras in the same price range?

Thanks! : Actually, when sharing this post on my blog’s facebook page, I called it “Quite simply the best entry-level mirrorless camera I’ve used”. I think that answers your question, right? Haha. For this price, it’s as good as you can get. Even if you spend a bit more, you’re probably not going to get anything better in terms of image quality. The only reason I’d ask you to consider a slightly higher end NEX (I say NEX coz these are some of the best value cameras I’ve seen) is if you want slightly better controls and handling. However, this would mean a bigger body, a bigger lens, and probably nothing different in terms of image quality. So yeah, for this price, the NEX 3N cannot be topped

Thanks, Fred Compared to the EOS M, I found the NEX 3N kit lens to be SLIGHTLY less sharp, but I think it was definitely on par. With the NEX 5R, I haven’t used it so I can’t really say; I’d guess there’s a slight improvement in image quality, but I don’t think it will be anything really noticeable. The NEX 5R would be a good option if you’re looking for better controls/handling and maybe overall performance speed; for pure image quality, I don’t imagine the NEX 5R would be a huge improvement over the NEX 3N

Great review! How does this camera compare to the Sony RX100? Which would you choose if you had to? Is the NEX 3N future-proofed because you can change the lens? The LCD screen resolution and loud shutter noise do put me off slightly (I prefer taking natural photos of people where it’s not obvious a photo is being taken).

Thanks, Riaz Well, the RX100 and NEX 3N are completely different cameras, really. One is a very high-end compact, the other is an entry-level mirrorless. The fact that the RX100 takes images that are close to the NEX 3N’s in terms of image quality, and in such a compact body, is why the RX100 costs more than the NEX. However, if you directly compare images, the NEX 3N will be better, naturally – it’s got a much larger sensor etc. And like you say, the NEX allows you to change lenses, which is a big deal, and can allow you to do a lot with the camera

If I were choosing right now, again it’d depend on what I want. If I want something truly compact and pocketable, I’d go for the RX100 – it’s so small, yet takes images that are nearly as good as the NEX. If I want something cheap, takes superb pictures, and I want something small, but not really pocketable, the NEX 3N is a great choice

The LCD should do the job for you 99% of the time; but the shutter noise does make you a bit obvious if you’re shooting natural people shots/street life photographs etc. Maybe you should test one out in a store and see what my idea of loud is! Thanks for stopping by

Very interesting review! It’s always nice when a reviewer describes using the product and not just the tech specs and crops and all that – although you covered those bits too. And as I see it, this camera seems perfect for me. Cheap, small, high image quality, and it’s an ILC. Nice set of features too. It’s to be my first ‘pro’ camera – what do you think?

I think it’s a great choice for your first real camera It’s extremely capable, and like you said, it’s cheap/small/light, and can change lenses should you need something more specific later on – being part of the NEX system, it’s very versatile in terms of lens selection. Go for it!

I love the look of this camera, but I have my doubts over the power zoom, even though it gives the compact form. Is it really that comfortable to use? I plan on using it for stills, not video, but even so… I love manual focus rings!

Oh, the power zoom is an absolute pleasure to use. However, that may just be me. Go try one out at a store before deciding. And spend a bit of time with it – it may take you 10 minutes or more before you get comfortable with it. Don’t let the sales guy rush you For stills, this power zoom lens work beautifully. For video, i wouldn’t know but I imagine it’d work pretty well for video too

No, it’s a pretty fast camera in all aspects, really. Focusing, power-on, general operation, it’s all pretty brisk. The only thing that’s not really snappy in today’s terms is the continuous shooting mode…but if you don’t use this mode much (I know I don’t), it’s not going to be a problem at all

Thanks Dan I’d definitely recommend this as your first camera. It’s probably the best in it’s class that I’ve tested recently. For the price, you just can’t go wrong with it. Check it out in a store first, though – make sure the size and feel are to your liking…but in terms of performance, it’s excellent

Love your review, appreciate how you discuss the details in depth. By any chance, you have handle samsung nx1000 before? I would like to ask your opinion on the comparison between nx1000 and nex 3n? At the end of the day which model would you recommend me to get? thanks alot!

Thanks, Natalie Yes, I’ve used the NX1000 a bit, but I haven’t really tested it so I can’t compare it directly. The NX1000 seems a pretty good camera, but if I had to recommend one it’d be the Sony NEX-3N at this price. Unless there’s a specific feature you really love/need in the Samsung, or some thing you really hate about this NEX, the 3N is what I’d go for if I were you Cheers

This was a great review (and I’ve read several on this camera)! I’ve been looking for a camera for my wife. I had just about decided on the Fuji X20 but started looking at the NEX cameras due to the larger sensor size. I like the 3N b/c of its size but have also been looking at the 5R. Ultimately, I’ll probably have to take my wife to a store and let her “handle them” and she what she prefers. Anyway, great stuff!

Thanks, Jim It’s always a good idea to go to a store n handle the camera personally, just to get a feel for it. Size and handling can be quite different when you actually use one in your own hands! But for the same (or cheaper) price, if you can manage the slightly larger size (and slightly less ‘premium’ build quality) the NEX-3N takes better quality images than the X20. I really like the X20, but it’s a compact. The NEX-3N performs around on par with entry/mid-range DSLRs. For the price, you can’t beat it. Unless there’s a specific feature you want that is in the 5R but not in the 3N, I recommend the 3N over the 5R If you really want a step-up from the NEX-3N, the NEX 6 is what you should go for. Good luck!

Terrific review – terrific camera too. Can’t wait to try one out myself. I really LOVE the size. And the pictures look fantastic. Handles well too, you say, even though it’s small, and the controls look nice. The zoom was something I had doubts on, but the more I read about it the less I worry

Thanks Harry Don’t worry about the zoom mechanism – I’m sure you’ll find one of the THREE methods of zooming that you’ll be comfortable with! And yeah, the picture quality is excellent. It’s one of the best value deals going out at the moment

I have just purchased the Sony 3n and my first impressions are mixed. The shutter is loud; too loud for the street. I like most everything about the camera except recharging the batteries. They hold a good charge but just under 5 hours (290 min.) to recharge a completely drained battery is too long. I also don’t like having to use the camera as a charger. I don”t think I’ll be keeping this camera despite the bargain. I went astray while looking for a Ricoh GR; back to my first choice.

Hi David, sorry to hear the NEX 3N didn’t work for you. The shutter is definitely a factor with this camera. but unless you’re into certain types of photography, like street photography, it’s not too much of an issue. I didn’t really notice the recharge time as I think I just had to recharge once and I did that overnight. Good point, though. And using the camera as a charge is something I hate too, but unfortunately all new Sony’s seem to be going that direction

The Ricoh GR is a completely different camera, really – so maybe the reason you’re not satisfied with this one is that you need something else for your needs – maybe it’s not the little NEX 3N issues that are really the problem? Either way, good luck with the Ricoh!

Hi,
I am new to photography and want to learn, so I’m very interested in this camera. However, I am a bit worried about its oversimplified menu control and the lack of AE lock. Luckily I did a Google search and found out that you can activate AE lock by choosing Continuous AF or by soft key B.

Hi there I’m aware of this – but like I mentioned in the review, if you use the ‘flexible-area AF’ mode, which I always do (it’s the most flexible, naturally!) the soft-key B is used by default to select the AF area. To use this soft key as an AEL, you need to switch to another AF mode. So in my case, if I want an AE lock button, I cannot use my first-choice AF mode. That’s disappointing – if you want an AEL button your camera, your choice of AF mode is limited. Kinda feels like the camera is dictating terms to you, isn’t it?

The menu system isn’t exactly oversimplified – it’s just not comprehensive enough, in the sense that you cannot access settings you need to access without many button presses. It’s a bit inconvenient. But to learn, I guess it’s alright, though – considering the price, for a new photographer, it can take some amazing pictures, and performs very well in general

Question about AE lock…did you mean when i focus on a subject, press shutter halfway to lock and then recompose or move my camera to another area and take pic? If so, i’m sure this can be done since i tried it already. The orignal area where i focused and pressed shutter halfway looks sharp to me after i reframed the pic.

No, that’s not what I meant. A true AE lock is where you can meter at a particular point of the scene, then lock that exposure value – then you focus and recompose independently. This can be done on the NEX 3N too, if you assign the right-directional key to function as the AE lock, but as I mentioned, for my use (and many others, I’d think) would need to use this key for other purposes, namely AF Area – so it’s not really possible if you want this too. However, the focus-and-recompose method also locks exposure, and is good enough for most people

Sorry, I don’t remember this – and I don’t have the camera with me any more. But as there’s no physical switch on the lens, I’m going to guess you can turn it off through a menu setting; have you tried digging through the settings menus?

Another thorough review – thanks for writing them. I’ve been looking at the EOS M and I’m both glad it got bad reviews because they’ve probably helped push the price down, and hesitant because there are so few good reviews of it from people who don’t own it, despite the real show-stopper of a problem, the autofocus, being fixed.

I imagine it’s difficult to say when it might be like reviewing an entirely different camera without that problem, but would you think of it as a competitor now? I’m attracted by the touch screen (comparing the reviews makes it sound easier to handle and customise than the NEX-3N) and that it’s now possible to buy it with the external flash, 18-55mm lens and EF/EF-S lens adaptor for £300, only £20 more than the NEX. Though I realise if I add an 18-135mm lens I could almost have bought a DSLR fo the money!

Without testing it, it’s hard to say, but I imagine that if the AF performance has been improved (which, it seems, it has) it definitely is a competitor, thanks to the price. If you’d be spending top dollar on it, I’d pass and recommend many other mirrorless systems, but at this price, it’s a pretty good option for sure

If you get the 18-55mm, the 18-135 is a bit redundant; but even if you do get that lens as well, bringing the cost close to a DSLR, remember than a low-to-mid-range DSLR is not going to do a lot more than your EOS M or an NEX. A DSLR will be bigger, more grippable, and faster, but with an APS-C sensor, the image quality and a lot of things will be the same. So if you can get an EOS M and a couple of lenses plus a flash, for the same price as a 600/650/700D, go for the EOS M!

Fantastic review mate. I ordered one, and now I am reading this. Only thing which is bothering me a tiny little is the Macro capability. I mean I am huge macro enthusiast you can say. But I don’t know how great macros this baby can take with 50 mm/25 cm combo, let’s see.

Thanks Yeah, the kit lens is not very good for macro work as it doesn’t really let you get that close to the subject. If I remember right, with this lens, you’d get a maximum magnification of 0.215x which isn’t that great. It’s good for close-ups but not even near what you’d want for real macro work.

If you’re really into macro, go for a true macro lens, which are usually prime lenses, like the Sony SELP30 30mm f3.5 macro lens, which is a true macro lens (1:1 magnification). It’s fairly cheap. You could also get the Sony 50mm f2.8 macro lens, which is for their Alpha DSLRs, but can mount on your NEX via an adapter – but this is costlier

Many thanks for the review. Own it and pretty much love it for its dynamic range.

May I give a different perspective on a point you raised about Background Defocus in the Auto mode being useless: Isn’t it great that we can control the Aperture in Auto mode? I wish I had this feature in my camera when I was starting out in photography; it would have simplified my (steep) learning curve of the exposure triangle. Also, Brightness in Auto mode gives us direct control over Exposure Compensation. I see it in the exif data.

The right directional key can hold 6 settings: I’ve set it to metering, AF/MF, AF mode, ISO, WB, DRO/HDR. Which means I have to dig through the menu to switch to raw and change the AF area, settings I would like to use a lot.

I’m getting a few blurry images with AF so I’m usually in DMF tweaking focus manually, that’s my only real complaint with this camera.

Well, as I said in my review, I assumed Background Defocus is for absolute beginners; and that I found it to be rather useless. Mind you, it doesn’t allow you to control aperture in Auto modes – it simply tells the camera to use a wide aperture. You have no control over it. That’s why I recommend even absolute beginners to learn to use the A/S/M modes if they’re even slightly interested in learning photography

The right directional key can hold six settings at one time? Well, that’s new – maybe a new firmware. Back when I reviewed it, a year ago, it could only hold one setting, and I left it at ISO. Good to note that it’s been improved

Hello, I’m fairly new to the photography world and still learning the basics; I own the NEX-3N but i’m not able to get the bokeh effect and in indoor low light, the photos are not that good; Now i’m mostly using the superior auto modes so can you tell me how to manually adjust the settings to get the bokeh effect , and also how to improve indoor shots in low light. Thank you.(I was thinking of getting the SEL50F18 but I think i better first know how to maximize the use what i already have)

Hi Jack. What’s wrong with your indoor low light shots? If they’re blurry, you could always try increasing the ISO sensitivity. You could also shoot in Aperture Priority mode, and/or use a wide aperture (small f-number)

To get the “bokeh” effect (or the more correct term would be shallow depth-of-field), you should again shoot in Aperture Priority mode, and use a wide aperture (small f-number). Other things to try would be to use the long end of your zoom lens (55mm, assuming you have the kit lens), and to get right up close to your subject